Did You Know?

• The bizarre flaps and wrinkles on the face of the Ghost-Faced Bat assists them with echolocation
• These intriguing bats essentially have no nose
• The Ghost-Faced Bat can be found throughout desert scrub-land, hiding in caves, mines and other crevices

What a Face!

Naturally, we need to start with the most distinguishing (and disturbing) feature of the Ghost-Faced Bat…their face! As mentioned, the nose of this bat has been replaced with an odd looking, wrinkly satellite dish. While they may not be able to get HBO with this satellite-face, these wrinkles, folds and shape allow them to send and receive sonar signals (echolocation). Obviously, this is important since these bats rely on echolocation to find their prey (it is a good thing they don’t rely on their nose!).

Sharing With Friends

If the appearance of the Ghost-Faced Bat bothers you, then you may never want to come across one during the day. When the sun is out this bat is known to roost with about 500,000 of their closest friends. Yes, you read that right. Interestingly enough, these peculiar bats have been known to share caves with the Mexican Free-Tailed Bats. It is always nice when different bat species are able to put aside their differences and share.

Much Needed Space

Unlike other bat colonies where the bats are pretty much piled on top of each other while roosting, the Ghost-Faced Bat needs its space. In fact, they leave about 15 cm (5.9 inches) between them and any other member of their colony. I guess they don’t even want to be too close to that creepy looking face.  If you are a nursing female, you will get even more space as these females will typically roost in a warm, dry location separate from the males and non-reproducing females. I am not 100% sure of the reasoning for this segregation but it seems to work well for this bat species. If you have any idea why the nursing females separate themselves from the crowd, please let us know in the comments below.

Ghost-Faced Bat Fast Fact

As the sun goes down, the Ghost-Faced Bat will leave the roost and begin foraging for large soft-bodied insects (i.e. moths) not returning for about 7 hours. These strong, fast fliers are typically successful at catching their prey, which makes you wonder how many insects they consume each night.